I was finishing my daily walk around Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens in Melbourne on a wonderful fine weather weekend (last weekend) . I had sat and sketched a lovely couple of ducks and was almost done when I heard some children yelling and playing. Curious I changed direction to see. There were a group of about eight children, girls, and boys between six and twelve (?) playing happily under a very large Pin Oak tree. The rest of their families were having a picnic nearby.

As I watched I saw they were all gathering up fallen leaves to make a big pile under one of the very low hanging branches.

They would then take turns to jump off the branch into the pile of leaves.

There was no fighting or squabbling and I wrote some of what they said on the page. I probably saw and heard them at their best, before they got tired !

It reminded me of some of the idyllic childhood fun I had with cousins and friends, Good times! It is so good to know that children can still enjoy the outdoors and simpler things in life. They were all called by their parents for break and afternoon tea. One children came back for a quiet moment at the tree eating hers. Then they all returned for complete destruction of the leaf pile !

I then added some colour to one of the line drawings.

I took a leaf home to draw. This one was from the tree, as the ones on the ground were all brown and dry.

Each year I draw my hot cross buns with my watercolour pencils at Easter. This year is no different.

I bought some from a local bakery (they must have peel ! ) One hot cross bun has sat on my desk for a few days while I drew it. I tried to remember to take photos along the way. The second drawing was a lot quicker. They are best when toasted in the oven and buttered. These buns were great to draw but did not live up to my ideal bun to eat. But I managed to anyway!

As a work in progress

Oops I put one of watercolour pencils in my water bowl. They are also called watersolouble or aquarelles. The pigment dissolves when water is added and that is that the wonderful thing about them. You can see the range of colour and tone that you get from one pencil. Faber Castell Walnut Brown Watercolour Pencil

BUT this is what happens when you leave it in water. Then I touched the tip and it fell off. However, I left it to dry out overnight and sharpened it, and is right to use again.

I have lots of projects over the Easter long weekend. There have been walks and catchups with friends and of course, sketching. Whatever you do, have a safe and happy Easter break.

I have sketched a double page of “things I must take with me when I go for a walk”. It feels like a major expedition and I always forget one or two items. I am now going to put a list on the inside of the door, so that i see it everytime I walk out.

I started this page about two weeks ago and had laid out in sketches of what I wanted where on the page. Today I finished it.

I had to think about the sizes of the different objects. I could not do them all their real size, so had to decide the varying sizes.

Since then, I have bought a new sunhat, with a broader brim for more sun protection, and sketched that too.

I finished it in a Sketch Zoom session today. Since late last year, I have been meeting on Zoom with two Sydney and a Melbourne friend and we work on our own projects and chat and eat. Today went from 10 am and til 3 pm. It is a time to achieve a lot. The four of us used to meet in person once a month when we all lived in Sydney (in the food court of a shopping center ) when we were all working on a project together. Then we moved onto our projects. We only started back together on Zoom late last year and have set aside our date for next month. I have a similar monthly session with some Australian and UK friend. We all enjoy these times.

I have previously written about and tested some of my watercolour pencils. Now that I have purchased the entire 126 Faber Castell watercolour pencil range, I have been experimenting with and becoming aware of the range of colours available. I wrote about it initially HERE. I have not made too many changes to the daily sketchkit I carry with me everyday. See these colours HERE. The swatches I have done for some of the colours show the colour on the page and then what it looks like when water is added. Some times the change is amazing – a big difference. This is where is it good to practice and get to know the colours.

I have previously written about

• blue and brown
• green
• yellow

Today’s test colours are pink and purple. Some of these are almost red, but that is for another blog….

I use Pink Madder Lake and Light Flesh in my daily sketch kit.

If you have watercolour pencils at home, have a play, scribble hard, add water see what you own. Most importantly , have fun !

I have just started my 100th Moleskine watercolour sketchbook, since December 2008. I know this because I write in the number in the front page of each one. I use Moleskine watercolor sketchbook 13 x 19 cm (known as Large). I have used these since I first decided to sketch consistently in a sketchbook, rather than on lots of loose pages ad Visual Art diaries that I had. I am sure the Moleskine was a recommendation of Liz Steel, as I was sketching so much with her in Sydney at the time. I was also using watercolour pencils then and ink pens, (but not my current lovely Lamy Safari Joy Ink pen)

I sketch almost every day and so I stock up and buy a few at a time. My usual stockist is Book Depository in the UK as they are a third less price than anywhere else and have free delivery. They were out of stock for a long time so I ordered from anywhere I could find. Just yesterday I checked and they are back in stock, so I ordered ten. That will do me for a while!

I label them . I am a librarian.

Of course, there are sometimes that I use a large sketchbook or whatever paper is at hand. or previously I have sketched in other brands’ sketchbooks. A5 Visual Diary. I had been sketching on and off for many years, Once I started using Moleskine journals I felt a real commitment and joy in sketching every day. If it is not in my sketchbook, it will be on another drawing project. There is so much fulfilment in drawing, see my post (which gets a lot of reads) Why drawing makes me happy . I feel as though I am still continually learning about my watercolour pencils. and I like to have the same paper each time so that I know what to expect. I feel no need to experiment and try other brands. And now I need to sketch every day.

This is the first two pages from December 2008.

and the first two pages in my current sketchbook

Do I ever look at the sketchbooks? yes!

Although I have all the pages scanned and on my hard drive (sorted by date) They are also on Flickr website where. they are by date but also searchable by tags and keywords. They are also sorted into themed albums, by topic or event. Explore and enjoy !

I take sketchbooks off my shelves for exhibitions or to show classes specific pages that are relevant to the class ie travel sketching nature sketching, sketching food. Students also get a lot out of looking through the whole sketchbook and seeing how I put words and sketches on the page, what I sketch and how I use watercolour pencil. There is nothing like turning pages of the real thing! I like to think they provide real inspiration for people. I love to look through other people’s sketchbooks. And sometimes I look at my sketchbook for pure nostalgia, remembering a place and a time as I sketched it.

What’s changed?

• My ink skills have improved so much. They were so scratchy and now I have a lot more confidence in sketching in ink, and combining it with colour.
• A few years ago I suddenly ‘got’ sketching crowds quickly.
• The subject matter is still the same – food, travel, objects, nature, books.
• I’ve improved my techniques with watercolour pencil – texture, and detail
• I am comfortable with my style. I realise it is the “unfinished look” and “impression of detail”. Once I had that in my head I have been happy with anything I sketch.
• I still struggle with, but am no longer anxious, about the formatting of the page. The sketch always comes before the words. I probably should plan more before starting a page.

I hope this has been useful and interesting.

A conversation with my local Melbourne Service Library librarian, Linda has led to my first display for a long time. The Library has almost returned to normal, after almost a year of lockdown in Melbourne. We still need to check in with QR codes and masks are still required.

Along with Tanya, a Melbourne artist we decided on a display of our sketchbooks to inspire other people to get their sketchbooks out again, be creative, and start getting back into some sort of normal life. We called it everyday Art. It is the art that we do everyday and also of the art of sketching everyday objects.

My sketchbooks on display

Tanya’s sketchbooks on display

Books from my collection

I have put some of my own books in a display cabinet to for anyone to also be inspired by.

Library books to borrow

I chose some books from the Library shelves and put them on a trolley to be borrowed.

Tanya and I also invited locals to join us in the local Fitzroy Gardens to sketch. We hope to inspire and motivate people to get creative again. It was a glorious 28 degrees with blue skies and sunshine. The park was full of families and picnickers.

Our display may inspire and motivate people who visit the library to get creative again. Or it may entertain them on their next visit to the Library.

Some of my blog posts are planned in advance and other just happen.

Yesterday I went to my local library to collect a book I had on reserve. I came home with four books, three magazines, four plant cuttings and two bees.

It is these last objects that my blog is about today.

My local East Melbourne Library (part of Melbourne Library Service) has a community garden out the back, (including a beehive). It was created by locals with help from a City of Melbourne grant for locals to enjoy. It was started a few years ago and was not touched over the past year while we were all in lockdown in Melbourne. Now we are gradually opening up some enthusiastic volunteers gave it a well-deserved cleanup and hard trim.

As soon as I had the idea I started to visualise how I could see the plants across two pages of my sketchbook. I picked the plants, found the bees caught up in spidersweb, and did a quick sketch on the page to see where I wanted to place each plant.

I carried my precious cargo home and quickly started drawing them, as the plants wilted quickly in front of me. I have kept the bees and added them to my collections of bugs, feathers, and nests.

It was not what I had planned for the afternoon, but I felt the need to document it and am pleased with the result. I could have spent a lot more time on this page, but have decided to leave it as is.

Below are some of my previous pickings

and here are the books I borrowed

• English Pastoral by James Rebanks
• three Country Life magazines (UK)
• The Button Box : the story of women in the 20th Century told through the clothes they wore
• The Cartographers Secret by Tea Cooper
• the Greek Coffin Mystery by Ellery Queen
• Tell Tale by Jeffrey Archer

We‘re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you. You can come too, too, too. We‘re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo …

This past week I spent a day at Melbourne Zoo with Kaz, a sketching friend. We were there from 9.00 til 4.30 and sketched all day, with a short break for lunch. Kaz is a regular zoo visitor and knew the layout and where the animals were.

I had an A4 watercolour sketchbook (bigger than my usual Moleskine 13cm x 19 cm watercolour sketchbook) and my usual watercolour pencils. I had also chosen some charcoal and graphite pencils. I was keen on doing some larger loose sketching.

Animals probably won’t stay still , or then again they might. We decided to stay and sketch if the animal was there and stayed and move on when it did. This approach seemed to work. The kangaroos were close to the fence and did not move at all. There were about six or more of them. Two emus would come and go and I would try to capture them quickly when they were close.

This Black Swan was preening and cleaning itself, feather by feather, standing up in some shallow water. I was on a walkway looking down and could see the glorious feathers. All of the wing feathers were ruffled, like flowers or fabric. Every now and then it would rise up and spread its wings to dry.

Below are some photos from my close encounter with a Red Tailed Black Cockatoo. We had been sketching and watching him for a while in the bird enclosure. Kaz was talking to him as he sat in the tree just above us and said “come down” and he did. It flew down and sat on the rail in front of me and started nibbling and turning the pages in my sketchbook. An amazing experience.

We spent a long time at some of the enclosures and probably saw about one third of the zoo. It was wonderful opportunity to observe.

These are only a few of the 32 pages of sketches I did on the day. See them all in my Melbourne Zoo Flickr Album. Some sketches are a few lines on the page, not always capturing the essence. It was a wonderful motivating day. I felt very pleased with my achievement and immediately wanted to go back. I am considering Zoo membership so that I can come and go for shorter amounts of time and don’t feel the need to commit to a whole day.

If you can’t get to a zoo or animals , I have been told about this live webcam site for animals EXplore

I have had one of my watercolour pencil drawings of an “open book” printed on a greeting card and available on my ETSY store for purchase. It is one in my “old books” series.

I have started to use these cards myself to send to people and adding extra to them, by drawing on the card. I hope to encourage others to purchase one and do this too. So I have been thinking about the many ways that it could be customised or personalised.

Some other ideas I have had include

• streamers
• butterflies
• flowers
• stars
• words or letters or numbers
• rainbow
• hearts
• balloons
• Christmas themed

Here is one I have been experimenting on today. I will probably reposition the butterflies a bit, so they are flying out of the book and maybe change their size.

what do you think? any ideas ?

I was given two miniature bottles of drinks recently. They each contain enough for one drink. You can see the size of them compared to the size of my hand and watercolour pencil drawing them. I don’t drink spirits, so I decided to make it a bit of an event. And the bottles are so cute.

Vodka Expresso Martini

One was a Vodka Expresso Martini made by Melbourne Martini – a premixed drink that came in a glass jar. Vodka and drip filter coffee. The instruction was to put it in the fridge, shake it, drink it. Of course, I had to drink it from a Martini glass. I couldn’t find one in my local op-shop. so one ordered online. IKEA $4 plus postage, which cost more than the glass. It arrived in such a big box that I had to sketch it. !

And the event. Drawing it was such fun. It tasted quite good with quite a kick! However, I will stick to wine and prosecco. But I do have a martini glass in my cupboard now.

Ink Gin

Ink Gin is the name of the New South Wales company that makes this drink. It is gin, “… made from botanicals but has an added ingredient. The deep violet colour is butterfly pea flower petals, an exotic flower from Thailand, which is infused into the gin after distillation. Normally used in herbal tea, the petals are highly sensitive to pH, causing the gin to change from blue to blush pink when combined with acidic mixers like tonic water, lemon or lime.”

So I drew it before and then after adding the tonic water.

The fun was in the event and the drawing and not the alcohol. (I won’t be trying sprits in a rush again).